“When we are optimizing our objective is to determine which hardware resource the code is exhausting (there must be one, otherwise it would run faster!), and then see how to modify the code to reduce its need for that resource. It is therefore essential to understand the maximum theoretical performance of that aspect of the machine, since if we are already achieving the peak performance we should give up, or choose a different algorithm.” [READ MORE…]

Featured Stories

Today Atos announced the deployment of a BullSequana X1000 supercomputer at CALMIP, one of the biggest multi-scale inter-university supercomputing centers in France. Called Olympe, the supercomputer will be used for over 200 research projects in materials, fluid mechanics, universe sciences and chemistry. “The supercomputer has a peak performance of 1,3 petaflop/s bringing 5 times more computing and processing power than that of the previous supercomputer, for the same energy consumption.” [READ MORE…]

High performance computing has gone through numerous shifts in the past few years. The new HPC, inclusive of analytics and AI, and with its wide range of technology components and choices, presents significant challenges to a commercial enterprise. A new report from Lenovo explores the intersection of HPC and AI, as well tips on how to choose the right HPC provider for your enterprise. [READ MORE…]

Greg Kurtzer from Sylabs gave this talk at the Stanford HPC Conference. “Singularity is a widely adopted container technology specifically designed for compute-based workflows making application and environment reproducibility, portability and security a reality for HPC and AI researchers and resources. Here we will describe a high-level overview of Singularity and demonstrate how to integrate Singularity containers into existing application and resource workflows as well as describe some new trending models that we have been seeing.” [READ MORE…]

Featured Resource

XTREME-D’s next step in offering seamless HPC/DA/DL computing is the XTREME-Stargate gateway platform, or cluster portal. This on-prem device acts as a cluster “head node” and provides secure and fast access to bare-metal clusters that are configured using enhanced XTREME-DNA technology. Download the full paper to learn more about how XTREME-Stargate offers a “super head node” for HPC cloud clusters.

Industry Perspectives

A new special report from insideHPC, courtesy of Dell EMC and NIVIDa explores current machine learning applications in government. And this excerpt breaks down solutions for AI in government, including Dell EMC Ready Solutions. Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI are validated hardware and software stacks optimized to accelerate AI initiatives, shortening the time to architect a new solution by six to 12 months. [READ MORE…]

It was with one goal – accelerating Python execution performance – that lead to the creation of Intel Distribution for Python, a set of tools designed to provide Python application performance right out of the box, usually with no code changes required. This sponsored post from Intel highlights how Intel SDK can enhance Python development and execution, as Python continues to grow in popularity. [READ MORE…]

In this special guest feature, Amjad Hussain, founder and CEO of Algo.ai,, observes that whereas 20 years ago, labels were able to flood stores with CDs in the knowledge surplus inventory would inevitably sell over time, doing so now could lead to huge losses. As such, companies are increasingly turning to new smart technology which […]

Editor’s Choice

Steve Oberlin from NVIDIA gave this talk at the Stanford HPC Conference. “Clearly, AI has benefited greatly from HPC. Now, AI methods and tools are starting to be applied to HPC applications to great effect. This talk will describe an emerging workflow that uses traditional numeric simulation codes to generate synthetic data sets to train machine learning algorithms, then employs the resulting AI models to predict the computed results, often with dramatic gains in efficiency, performance, and even accuracy.” [READ MORE…]

In this video, Computational biologist Laura Boykin describes the threat to lives and livelihoods the whitefly represents, the international effort to fight it, and how supercomputing flips the script on a once unwinnable war. “Cray supports visionaries like Laura and her scientific colleagues in East Africa in combining computation and creativity to change outcomes.” [READ MORE…]

In this special guest feature, Paul Grun and Doug Ledford from the OpenFabrics Alliance describe the industry trends in the fabrics space, its state of affairs and emerging applications. “Originally, ‘high-performance fabrics’ were associated with large, exotic HPC machines. But in the modern world, these fabrics, which are based on technologies designed to improve application efficiency, performance, and scalability, are becoming more and more common in the commercial sphere because of the increasing demands being placed on commercial systems.” [READ MORE…]

For the second year, Lenovo, the largest worldwide provider of supercomputers, and Intel, a leader in the semiconductor industry, co-sponsored the University Artificial Intelligence Challenge, which aims to recognize outstanding university-based AI researchers for their achievements in the field. The company started this program in 2017, with the goal of encouraging AI research in universities world-wide. “Eight researchers from universities in North America, Europe, and Asia were selected as award winners, seven of them made it to SC18 and presented their findings in the Lenovo booth.” [READ MORE…]

I would like share this very special film with all my readers who happen to be Dog lovers. “Once there was a Giant” is a short documentary film about Dogs and the Dog Owners who love them. Written and Directed by Richard Brueckner, this film premiered in Portland on Halloween and is now live on YouTube. [READ MORE…]

Latest Video

Industry Perspectives

Addison Snell gave this talk at the Stanford HPC Conference. “Intersect360 Research returns with an annual deep dive into the trends, technologies and usage models that will be propelling the HPC community through 2017 and beyond. Emerging areas of focus and opportunities to expand will be explored along with insightful observations needed to support measurably positive decision making within your operations.” [READ MORE…]

White Papers

The new HPC, inclusive of analytics and AI, and with its wide range of technology components and choices, presents significant challenges to a commercial enterprise. Ultimately, the new HPC brings about opportunities that are worth the challenges. This whitepaper from Lenovo outlines new markets, workloads and technologies in HPC, as well as how its own products and tech are addressing the solution needs of the “new HPC.”